Circular knitted tubular fabrics usually require finishing on a calendar before the fabrics can be cut into pieces to be later sewn into garments. Conventional calenders, such as disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 3,973,306, for treating such fabrics, usually comprise an internal spreader over which a tubular fabric is drawn by an edge drive means with steam being applied to the fabric while it is on the spreader or immediately thereafter. Such devices usually have a pair of chrome plated steel calendar rolls forming a nip extending in the vertical position. The tubular fabric in such instances leaves the spreader and steaming station and enters the nip formed between the two steel rolls where it is then pressed or calendered before it is batched at a batching station in either rolled or folded form prior to being transported to a cutting table.
The calendar rolls in such conventional apparatus also serve to control the center portion of the tubular fabric relative to its edge portions which are engaged by the edge drive means to move the fabric over the spreader and also serve to maintain the width of the fabric after it leaves the spreader. If the edge drive means engaging the edges of the tubular fabric moves faster or slower relative to the peripheral movement of the calendar rolls, then the cross-line or straightness of the fabric is effected. This can be a particular problem where the fabric to be finished may comprise a striped fabric. Control of cross-line or straightness of the fabric has been accomplished by varying the peripheral speeds of the calendar rolls with respect to the edge drive means such that the center of the tubular fabric may be bunched up or stretched with respect to the edges of the tubular fabric in order to maintain cross-line control. In order that the calendar rolls may exert sufficient pressure in the nip area on the fabric to maintain such cross-line control and/or to maintain width of the fabric after it leaves the spreader, a certain amount of pressure must be applied to the fabric so that it can be driven by or held back by the rolls. Such pressure presents a problem on certain types of fabrics where a flattened appearance or an edge crease is not desirable, for example napped fabrics as are used for sweat-shirts and lofty fabrics such as used in thermal material for underwear and such as used in sweater-type materials. In order to reduce sharpness of the crease occurring at the edges of the fabric, the nip pressure applied between calendar rolls in conventional treatment apparatus can be reduced, however it cannot be removed all together without losing cross-line control.
It is therefore an object of our invention to provide for an apparatus and method for finishing a tubular fabric which may maintain cross-line control of the fabric and/or maintain width to the fabric after it leaves a spreader without imparting objectionable crease to the tubular fabric or without imparting an objectionable flattened appearance to the fabric.